Maine Unemployment Rate 5.7 Percent in November

December 19, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 19, 2014
Contact: Glenn Mills 207-621-5192

State Labor Commissioner Jeanne Paquette released November workforce estimates for Maine.

Seasonally Adjusted Statewide Data

Household Survey Estimates ? The preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.7 percent in November was little changed from 5.8 percent in October and down from 6.4 percent one year ago. The number of unemployed declined 5,400 over the year to 40,200.

The employment to population ratio estimate of 60.8 percent remained above the U.S. average (59.2 percent) for the 86th consecutive month.

The U.S. preliminary unemployment rate of 5.8 percent was unchanged from October and down from 7.0 percent one year ago. The New England unemployment rate averaged 5.8 percent. Rates for other states were 4.1 percent in New Hampshire, 4.3 percent in Vermont, 5.8 percent in Massachusetts, 7.1 percent in Rhode Island, and 6.5 percent in Connecticut.

Labor force and unemployment data is available at http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/laus1.html .

Payroll Survey Estimates ? The preliminary nonfarm payroll jobs estimate for November of 609,600 is up 6,900 from one year ago. Private sector jobs were up 7,300, primarily in the professional and business services, education and healthcare, and leisure and hospitality sectors. The estimate for government was down 400 from one year ago (see note 2).

Nonfarm payroll jobs data is available at http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/ces1.html .

Not Seasonally Adjusted Substate Data

The not seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate was 5.4 percent in November, down from 6.3 percent one year ago. Not seasonally adjusted rates ranged from 4.1 percent in Cumberland County to 8.1 percent in Piscataquis County. Rates tended to be lower than the statewide average in southern and central counties and higher than average in northern and rim counties.

Among metro areas the unemployment rate was below the statewide average in Portland-South Portland-Biddeford (4.2 percent) and Lewiston-Auburn (4.9 percent) and close to the statewide average in Bangor (5.2 percent).

This release is available at http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/news/release.html .

December estimates will be released Tuesday, January 27 (Data Release Schedule: http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/releaseDates.html ).

NOTES:

1. Preliminary labor force estimates, including unemployment and employment to population ratios for Maine tend to move in a direction for several months and then reverse course. Those directional trends are largely driven by a smoothing procedure and may not indicate a change in underlying workforce conditions. Annual revisions (to be published in March 2015) will eliminate those directional patterns. A comparison of preliminary and annually revised unemployment rates is available at http://cwri.blogspot.com/2014/03/workforce-data-revisions-part-1.html .

2. Nonfarm payroll jobs estimates tend to be volatile from month to month. Users should look to the trend over multiple months rather than the change from one specific month to another. Estimates for the period from October 2013 to September 2014 will be replaced with actual payroll data in March 2015. Those benchmark revisions are likely to show less volatility than preliminary estimates.

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